Category Archives: Print on demand

Ingram Content Group Inc. and Macmillan today announced a new distribution services model that will integrate Ingram’s print on demand (POD) and fulfillment capability with Macmillan’s publishing program. Macmillan will use Ingram’s print on demand and physical distribution infrastructure to manage traditional inventory and POD for “”long tail” titles. Macmillan will continue to fully service its customer relationships from its primary warehouse in Virginia. Continue reading Macmillan to use Ingram’s print-on-demand service→

Great article today in Inside Higher Education, All in the Delivery, that discusses the rise of eBooks in higher education, specifically for textbooks. Kindle, iPad, CourseSmart, FlatWorld Knowledge, and of course print, are discussed in the context of the best method for delivery of academic ebooks. The author, Steve Kolowich, offers a nice overview and variety of stats and links. The comments thus far are nice as well.

Eric Freese, and Aptara Solutions Architect, wrote an article for the Digital Book World blog yesterday, “Google Editions: what we know and don’t know.” In this article he discusses content, platforms, partners, EPUB, price, and the possibility of a “gpad” type tablet in the future. Unfortunately, as the title suggests, there is much we don’t know about Google Editions, but the article is still a great summary.

Each week the number of blog posts and articles relating to eBooks, publishing, and eReaders is on the rise. This week was no exception. Articles I am linking to focus on the use of readers in elementary schools and higher ed and how fast/slow reading is on devices, future of publishing and business models, textbook costs, and the new SONY reader library program.

On Saturday morning at ALA, a group of librarians and publishers gathered together to discuss the world of eBooks, particularly aspects of consortial purchasing. Each hour of the discussion a panel of publishers and librarians was on hand to lead the discussion.

The event was organized by Michael Zeoli at YBP, Julie Gammon at the University of Akron, and Tony Horava at OCUL. Michael began the event with general slides about eBook and print book availability and sales. He also offered a few anonymous comments from librarians. I’ll try to get copies of his slides to post. Continue reading Mad World of eBooks part one – ALA discussion→

Interesting article in SSP”s Scholarly Kitchen by Joseph Espisito, “The POD Booby Trap and the Lure of Open Access Books.” Espisito discusses “the booby trap” of open access, stating, “The unfortunate, unstated premise of those who fall into the POD booby trap is that they really don’t and can’t believe in the emerging primacy of digital text. The trap is set for anyone who thinks that print is superior for enough readers to make print a long-term viable option. This is highly doubtful. E-books have already reached the tipping point. In just a couple months, Apple has sold millions of e-books from its online bookstore, millions that come on top of the tens of millions sold by Amazon for its Kindle and Stanza brands. And Google Editions haven’t even launched yet. No more make-believe. If we want the cultural advantages of broad dissemination of scholarly texts through open access, then let’s step up and pay for it. Authors, department heads, university provosts, granting agencies — all of these have a stake, or claim to, in the distribution of academic material. Let the stakeholders fund the stake.”

Let the stakeholders fund the stake. This sounds exactly like a plan that Frances Pinter from Bloomsbury Academic is trying to promote. She spoke about it at the O’Reilly TOC conference and I had a follow up interview with her in March. She’ll be keynoting on this exact topic at The Charleston Conference in November.

Ingram announced on June 9th a partnership with Pedia Press to POD customized books created from wiki material. Pedia Press supports the “Create a Book” feature within Wikipedia and other wiki based sites.